Need Help from Online Booking Experts

For our last three trips to Couples we have booked two online ourselves and once via a travel agent. So far for April 2015 we have found a great price on the flight and would book but can't come close to the deals we have had in previous years for the resort (CN is our favourite).

Is it futile to be searching daily or weekly on the various travel websites at this stage of the game or should we just cross our fingers that a vacation package will come up on sale as we get closer? We keep hoping that someone will have a deal on CN but that may be just wishful thinking on our part.

Being Canadian with a lower dollar is also compounding the problem when compared to the previous years.

I empathize with all our friends in the great white north,as far as some of the air/fare/delays/pricing woes you can face, but, still envy you in that ....almost any province you're in you can usually get a DIRECT flight to MoBay vs. dealing with connecting...Imagine a world where you can't go direct from FL to Jamaica(outside of Orlando or Miami, a 6 or 10 hr drive for us), but can fly straight to Ja from Winnipeg.....waaah, it's not fair

Ruminiscing, I do the same here! I am planning a trip for July 2015 and I'm constantly on a bunch of online travel sites, that currently are only showing vacation packages up to the first week of June 2015. I have never traveled in the so called slow season (Always been May) so I am hoping for a better deal that we have paid the last 2 years! I usually go on Itravel2000, Westjet/AC Vacations and if I can find a good deal will call my TA and she will take care of the rest. I'm just wondering when these possible July deals will be out and if there will really be any big savings with our crappy Canadian dollar!! Will just have to continue to search I guess!!

For our last three trips to Couples we have booked two online ourselves and once via a travel agent. So far for April 2015 we have found a great price on the flight and would book but can't come close to the deals we have had in previous years for the resort (CN is our favourite).

Is it futile to be searching daily or weekly on the various travel websites at this stage of the game or should we just cross our fingers that a vacation package will come up on sale as we get closer? We keep hoping that someone will have a deal on CN but that may be just wishful thinking on our part.

Being Canadian with a lower dollar is also compounding the problem when compared to the previous years.

Thanks for any expert advice.

Being a hoser as well... managed to find a great deal for early Dec 2013 on a CAA Travel site. Scoured the sites then, and am scouring now for a return trip hopefully in February 2015. At the time, CAA was using the travelocity booking agent in the background if you chose the "hotel+air" together options vs the "package deal" option. They must have changed set-ups as I now don't see the same options... funnily enough, I recently tried the AAA site for travel, and noticed that they still use travelocity in the background.

Here is my take... the Canadian tour operators (Sunquest, WestJet, Air Canada, etc...) typically price higher, but will occasionally run sales, so worth keeping an eye out. My favourite site for seeing the best "consolidated" deals from all tour-ops is tripcentral.ca

You can book flight and hotel separately, but then you are missing out on the discounts that some of the larger online agencies offer (expedia, travelocity, orbitz). These can run up to $300/pp/pw. If you choose the "build your own" package deal option on expedia for example, you should still be able to get the good flight deals that you had found.

What I normally do is check google flights, or http://matrix.itasoftware.com/ (same information, just different looks), find the best dates for flight pricing then go to expedia/travelocity and plug in the same dates in the "build your own" vacation package section. Don't forget that for Couples, the "included transfers" that the tour operators tout are inclusive even without their package.

Another minor point... we prefer to fly westjet as there are sometimes 2 daily flights from YYZ to MBJ, so we arrive on the early and return on the late, which allows for a couple of extra hummingbirds on the beach on our last day.

For our last three trips to Couples we have booked two online ourselves and once via a travel agent. So far for April 2015 we have found a great price on the flight and would book but can't come close to the deals we have had in previous years for the resort (CN is our favourite).

Is it futile to be searching daily or weekly on the various travel websites at this stage of the game or should we just cross our fingers that a vacation package will come up on sale as we get closer? We keep hoping that someone will have a deal on CN but that may be just wishful thinking on our part.

Being Canadian with a lower dollar is also compounding the problem when compared to the previous years.

Thanks for any expert advice.

You're not going to find prices anywhere close to what you did previously as Couples has jumped their prices. To us it's about 28 percent PLUS the difference in the dollar.

Thanks everyone for your comments, suggestions and advice. We have been using many of the sites as suggested so your comments confirm that the rates aren't something we were missing as it is that way for everyone.

We have thought about and priced out the option of flying out of the USA but as Lisa/Pat say you can't fly direct to MBJ from most places. The idea of losing extra time at the resort due to flight stops, baggage fees and the potential for lost luggage, always concerns us. Hadn't thought, before reading Lisa/Pat's post, that our southern neighbours had the same concerns/frustrations.

We thought of starting a thread for Canadians to post deals that they find, but it wouldn't work with Couples delay in approving posts on this message board. The pop-up resort, flight or combo deals would likely be over.

Thanks everyone for your comments, suggestions and advice. We have been using many of the sites as suggested so your comments confirm that the rates aren't something we were missing as it is that way for everyone.

We have thought about and priced out the option of flying out of the USA but as Lisa/Pat say you can't fly direct to MBJ from most places. The idea of losing extra time at the resort due to flight stops, baggage fees and the potential for lost luggage, always concerns us. Hadn't thought, before reading Lisa/Pat's post, that our southern neighbours had the same concerns/frustrations.

We thought of starting a thread for Canadians to post deals that they find, but it wouldn't work with Couples delay in approving posts on this message board. The pop-up resort, flight or combo deals would likely be over.

I booked for 10 days starting Dec. 27 at Couples Negril and did this back in March with a travel agent.
I have been watching the prices and they are still $ 700.00 more and I have not seen
any sales go on at all. I checked on line through the Couples website however they are priced in
American dollars but say they will price match.
I also realize I am paying more the time of year that I go.